World at War

According to a report released by RIA Novosti, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reported that the country has declined to allow Russian officials to inspect their military installations.

Russia made the official request on both January 19 and 21 to allow their experts to access the Georgian military installations for verification and evaluation inspections. According to a Vienna OSCE document from 1999, Russia has the right to request to inspect installations on the grounds of building confidence with its neighbors and preserving security-building measures.

The ministry released a statement that stated, “”There are no guarantees that Russia will not attempt again to conduct aggressive actions and to use information obtained during the inspections to harm Georgia’s national interests.”

Last August, Russia invaded Georgia after the country attempted to regain control of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. The war lasted for only five days and Russia successfully forced Georgian troops to pull out of the region. South Ossetia and another breakaway republic, Abkhazia, were both recognized by Russia to be independent states. Most residents of the region now have Russian citizenship.

Moscow and Tbilisi have had a strained relationship since and the Russian government believes Georgia is accepting shipments of weapons from its neighbor Ukraine, another country embroiled in diplomatic strife with Russia.

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